After forming in 1999 as a Don Cherry recording project, Scandinavian garage, jazz trio The Thing soon established themselves as one of the most important European jazz groups, playing a variety of compositions, including material by PJ Harvey, Albert Ayler, The White Stripes, Steve Lacy, The Stooges, The Sonics, The Cramps, Lightning Bolt and The Ex. They transformed the music of these artists into a contemporary context, making it their own. As individuals or as a group, they have collaborated with those including, Peter Brötzmann, Sonic Youth, Jim O’Rourke, Thurston Moore, David Grubbs, Eye, The Ex, Pat Metheny, Arto Lindsay, Steve Reid, Kieran Hebden, Merzbow, Christian Marclay, The Nomads, Guy Picciotto, Neneh Cherry and more, all activities fueling the music of The Thing to become what the group is all about.

After more than 600 concerts around the globe, five studio albums including their collaborative release with Neneh Cherry and a variety of live releases over the years, in 2013 The Thing presented their sixth studio album, BOOT! as the first release on their new label, The Thing Records. BOOT! is The Thing’s most hard-hitting, open and epic release to date.

With dedicated fans in the rock, noise and jazz communities, BOOT! takes The Thing’s music to new, uncompromising levels and continues to solidify The Thing’s special and important position in the contemporary independent music world.

Mats Gustafsson is one of Europe’s biggest names on the music scene. Through groups like Gush, AALY trio, Fire! and Peter Brötzmann`s Chicago Tentet, he has established himself as a very powerful saxophonist, and has somewhat reinvented the way of playing the saxophone. In 2011 he received the Nordic Council Music Price: the biggest price for a musician in the Nordic countries.

Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love have become known as Norway`s heaviest rhythm-section. Since their long-time collaboration started in 1992, they have been working together in several groups like School Days with Ken Vandermark, Scorch trio with Raoul Björkenheim, and the Swedish/Norwegian jazz-group Atomic.

“Tapping into rock’s most primal forces with the fire and fury that’s something to behold” – Mojo

“The Thing convert nouveau punk and vintage garage-rock into a roaring scream-up, but the sheer energy and love of the music keep gimmickery at bay” – Uncut

“The sheer power they generate from wood, metal, breath and muscle is stunning” – BBC

“Absurdly cool” – DJ Magazine

“Boot!, the mighty new album from Scandinavian jazz punks The Thing, is a heavy, heavy beast. The sonic equivalent of the Hulk doing battle with Godzilla, it bursts out of the speakers in a seething mass of molten bass saxophone, filthy fuzz bass and machine gun snare” – The Quietus

“Boot! not only refines what the Thing do, it extends them into a breathtaking sphere where a Babel-like musical conversation takes place, elevating all of its singular elements into a rough, raucous, glorious whole.” – All Music